If you head over to The Vinyl Villain today (and every Sunday for the foreseeable future) you'll find JC and Drew going through the singles of The Fall. That may well sound like a Herculean labour but Drew has been known to undertake- voluntarily- the task of listening to every Fall album released in chronological order in one weekend before.
In 1988 I bought the tenth Fall studio album, The Frenz Experiment. It contained their cover of Victoria, an actual top forty hit for Prestwich's finest. The album has been seen as a bit of a mis- step by many purist fans, a bit Fall on autopilot, Brix pushing the group in a more commercial direction, and there's no denying it has a more accessible sound compared to some of their records but there's plenty to enjoy- The Steak Place, Carry Bag Man, Oswald Defence Lawyer, Get A Hotel and Bremen Nacht all do it for me. Mark E Smith is in minimalist lyrical form in part, a less is more approach, in contrast to the torrent of words he often used to spill into the mic. On the album's opening song, the first I heard when I snapped the cassette deck shut in March 1988 and pressed play, is Frenz- a groove as much as a song built around a two note Steve Hanley bassline and Mark ruminating on the number of friends he had (not enough for one hand) with the unsaid insinuation that he was surrounded by hangers on.
4 comments:
Nah, irk the purists, it's a great album. Love the pop fall. 85-91 was my favourite era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB10-CFhRj8
I first heard The Fall in 1985/6 but The Frenz Experiment was the first of their albums that I bought, on vinyl with the bonus 7". Like Nick L, I'm a big fan of the 1985-91 era, possibly because it was my jumping on point. I was initially a bit surprised/disappointed to find that Hit The North wasn't included but I think - as I did then - that this is a great album not least for the songs that you mention.
The Frenz Experiment is The Fall on full test petrol. So many things fall into place on the album for me. It is purly The Fall beginning to end. They toy with Pop and even tunefulness on many songs. But the wit and guile isn't missing anywher on the album. Bremen Nacht is The Fall taking a Madness style Ska/Pop beat and turning it on it's head, before burying it in the soft soil.
My favorite track that's only teasted on the album is Guest Informant which appears on the b-side of Victoria but I will wait patiently for JC and Drew to get there...
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